Topic: How much is 1 bit? - page 2. (Read 5848 times)

There is clearly the potential for confusion, but I very much doubt it would be that serious.

Also according to Wikipedia a "dime" can be 10 cents or $10 and people seem to cope OK.

I personally think it is long past the time when anyone can decide what to call a given fraction of a bitcoin.

Common usage will provide the answer (or more likely answers).

Damn these bitcoins thingy are so confusing.

If you actually bothered to read that wiki article (which you actually might have) you would see that "bit" as 12.5 cents hasn't been used for decades if no centuries.

"just because you think a bit means 1 millionth of a bitcoin does not make it so."
Actually it does. A word can mean anything. That is the point of this whole discussion. Your using backhanded tactics to get your way, therefore I have no respect for your opinion.

that's what you say, but i have seen others swearing they would be that much, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_(money) proves a bit is actually already 12.5 cents.

just because you think a bit means 1 millionth of a bitcoin does not make it so.

also, that article proves that 'bit' in the currency world also was used for different purposes, it also meant 6 pence. and a short bit was $0.10 and a long bit was $0.15

i have actually already quoted some persons who used bit to mean something other than 1 millionth of a bitcoin. and on top of that you can't deny you haven't heard some people use 'millibit' or 'microbit' before. And if microbit means 1/1000th of a bit(coin), than it implies that 1 bit = 1 bitcoin (even though very few people actually use 1 bit = 1 bitcoin directly, the very use of microbit/millibit and centibit imply 1 bit = 1 bitcoin. also since bit is an abbreviation of bitcoin, it only makes sense to use it to mean bitcoin.

What do we call 1/100th of a dollar? a cent, from the latin word centi (which means 1/100th)
what do we call 1/100th of a euro? a cent, from the latin word centi (which means 1/100th)
what do we call 1/100th of any other currency? a cent, from the latin word centi (which means 1/100th)
what would we name 1/100th of a bitcoin? A cent, (or a bitcent or a centibit)

what do we call 1/1000th of a dollar? (mostly used at gas stations and sometimes in finance?), a mill (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)), from the latin word 'milli' which mean 1/1000th
what should we name a 1/1000th of a bitcoin? a mill (or millibit, or bitmill even though the last one does not really sound all that great to me)

we don't really have 1/millionth of a dollar because the dollar is not valuable enough for that but if we apply the same logic we used above, what would we call 1 millionth of a bitcoin?
that's right, we create a name derived from the latin word for 1/millionth which is a micro. Hence, 'mike'

perfect logic.

Imagine if literally thousands of new members will sign up in the next couple of weeks/months (which could totally happen if bitcoin enters another bull run) and they see people use 'millibits' (1/1000 bit) they would immediately know they mean 1/1000th of a bit(coin) and immediately associate the word bit with bitcoin, meaning 1 bit = 1 bitcoin. Then, a while later they see someone talking about bits, now what value would they think a bit is? Most likely 1 bitcoin.

I think he adequately showed in this post that there was confusion.

The 1 bit = 1µ BTC appears to be a reddit/bitpay thing. It is by no means universally accepted.

Your reasoning skills are terrible.

1 bit does not mean any of the things that you just said EXCEPT 1 millionth of a bitcoin.

I am perfectly willing to listen to reasonable arguments but I haven't heard a single one come from you.

well, if 1 bit means 1 bitcoin, and 1 millionth of a bitcoin, and a 100th of a millionth of a bitcoin, and 12.5 cents, and 1/8th of a bitcoin, than we start having a problem.

Why is that a problem?

Thousands of words have multiple meanings, it's really not an issue.

except bits don't work fine because bits are not unambigious

Of course there are but bits works just fine, and, in my view, certainly better than those three.

I think singularity makes an excellent argument.

what about ubits, zibs, mikes?

there's plenty of other possible names.

tip 100 Flabeldigoogeldiguk to singularity

I'll take the Bits...

It is quite astounding people's lack of ability to comprehend things out of their own sphere.

"Micro bitcoin" is horrible to say. "How much is that coffee?" "1000 micro bitcoins please."

"Mike" is possibly even worse. "Mike" is a male western name. You might as well call bitcoin "Stephen" or "Dave". It is just ridiculous.

The new unit name of bitcoin does not need to work especially well for people who are already using bitcoin. They aren't going to get confused since they likely already understand it. We are renaming the bitcoin unit so that anyone can understand it.

"There are many other 3 or 4 letter single syllable words".
Yep. I didn't say there wasn't. This isn't an argument against it though.

"That is exactly the problem, and one of the mean reasons it's confusing, because it's simply an abbreviation of the word bitcoin. Which will guarantee people WILL use it as an abbreviation to mean bitcoin."
Except that most people have already abbreviated "Bitcoins" to "coins". I have never heard anyone say "bits" in place of "bitcoins".

"Only on reddit and only because a small group with a big mouth keeps chanting it."
No. Just no.

"A bit has too many meanings, that's the problem".
Bit has two meanings, both of which are HIGHLY relevant to the new meaning.

"There are many more words we could think of that are easy to say in any language"
Yes but again this is not actually an argument against it, is it? This reasoning could be applied to any word we use.

"No one discussed this, and many people voted for this"
Well that was probably the quickest contradiction ever.

"but the name bit is just the worst name you can imagine."
Err right. What about "Flabeldigoogeldiguk"?

"If bit was such a good name like you claim there would not be this many topics AGAINST it"
Except that every thread I have read recently discussing it, most people agree that "bit" is the best solution.

"his many topics have you seen AGAINST satoshi? That's right, none."
This is not an argument though. Just because something has never been discussed before does not mean it should not be.

Americans represent less than 5% of the world's population so I don't know why you keep singling them out. Also, their currency is metric: 100 cents = $1.

For stronger correlation to peoples mental model of what a currency is, eg $'s and cents. It 'maps' better to the way they think. That makes it far easier to understand, and consequently to want, and to use.

Oh damn, I guess I got the wrong memo, or read it wrong. Thanks for letting me know

Why does the abbreviation have to be techie sounding?

Millies or mills (representing milibitcoins) are already used for calculating property tax.
Mikes (representing mircobitcoins) sound downright non-technical: and may make Bitcoin seem less threatening.


The first item in that sub-list contradicts the last. If a "bit" is one of something, why is there 100 smaller parts in each one?

I think people are really missing the point here.

We are not looking for a scientific/mathematically perfect new name for a denomination of bitcoin. It does not need to fit into these rules. Just because we are tech people and feel the need for everything to be logical, does not mean that our concept of what is 'correct' is applicable to the average person.

What we are looking to do is essentially rename/rebrand the currency and simultaneously move the standard unit of the currency to something that can be considered by the average person to be more 'affordable'. The amount of times I have heard people tell me they could never buy bit coins now because it is "too late" or it is "too expensive" is unbelievable. This is a significant problem for bitcoin.

It needs a good, simple and effective name to represent it. "bit" seems like the obvious choice for a number of reasons.

• It is a single syllable and relatively aesthetically pleasing to the ear.
• Even non technical people perceive it to be a technological based word but likely one that they do not find threatening due to a large amount of exposure to it.
• It is the first 3 letters of the word "Bitcoin" therefore it already has an association.
• "Bit" is already relatively widely used as 100 Satoshis.
• "Bit" is likely easy to say in practically any language.
• "Bit" already has the meaning of 'one something' in the english language.

It is important to have a unit made up of 100 Satoshis for the reason's other people have given. It would end up progressing this way anyway over time so it make sense to prepare for this now. One reason that I haven't seen anyone else give is that; we are naturally able to deal with 100's 1000's and 1,000,000s of something
rather than decimals of something. You never hear "that ice cream cost 0.000099 gold bars" but you do hear "That house costs $175,500".

It's all about making things as easy as possible for the average, non-techie, non-mathematician, non-engineer. In fact scrap that. We have to make bitcoin accessible to even the most uneducated people in the world. It has to work for EVERYONE. People fear what they do not understand therefore we must get rid of every possible barrier to entry, no matter how silly or small it might seem.

As much as I admire Satoshi I do not know if I would want 0.01 Bits to be named "Satoshis". Again, this would likely be something people would not understand and then fear. I personally think simply 'cent' or 'bit cent' should be used. A large portion of the planet already use the word cent to mean the lowest divisible unit of a currency (or have heard of it through western film and TV) therefore it is already somewhat of an international word. People are already comfortable with it and understand it.

In my opinion the most practical and coherent solution is;

0.000000001 = 1 cent or bit cent
0.0000001 = 1 Bit

how can a microbit be a bit

that's like saying a micrometer is a meter

this is exactly the reason why bit should not be used as a name.

Also, they only use it on reddit, but reddit is just a small group of people that go with whatever the guy with the biggest mouth shouts. And some genius implemented it in the tipping bot and that's why everyone uses it because a handful of people keeps spamming tips in 'bits' (they used to tip in satoshies and internets before that)

If the bot would just rename bits to mikes or something else that's unambiguous than within a few days no one will even remember the 'bit' epidemic